Floral Mini-Album Pt 7 Page 6

Recently I made a new mini-album, about my mum who died in December. I was unable to publish anything about this until now because it is a present for her best friend, who sometimes visits my blog, and I wanted it to be a surprise for her. I wrote a series of blog posts as I did each stage of the project, so I didn’t forget what I did, and they will be published in sequence now the project is finished and has been given to our friend.

If you want to see the finished project, please click here.

Moving on to page 6, I used pieces cut from the paper stack in my stash to mat the top flap of the page. I lightly distressed the edges with Black Soot distress ink. This particular paper was one of the least objectionable in the whole stack so I decided to leave it unaltered.

Working on two identical albums side by side presents a slight problem in that I don’t always have two sheets of the particular designer paper, and I can’t cut two matching pieces. In this case, however, I was fine. I found some green card with a slight pattern in it but thought this was too stark and didn’t suite the page, so I inked it with Forest Moss distress ink, using the smooshing method (by which you smear the ink pad on your craft sheet, spritz it with water, and smoosh the card around in it, which generates some lovely random patterns.)

This paper proved rather difficult to use for this technique because as I mentioned in part 1 of this series, I think there is a slightly waxy layer on it and the ink tended to bead up, but I got the result I wanted in the end, and once it as dry, I distressed the edges first with Forest Moss Distress ink, and then with Black soot distress ink, until I got the desired effect. Finally, I added some Broken China distress oxide ink, also using the smooshing method. In the above picture, you can see the two pieces I made for the album, and underneath, a piece of the paper in its original stage for comparison.

Here is the mat on the front of the bottom flap, complete.

When you fold the top flap down over it, you can see a small amount projecting beyond the top flap, so it needed to co-ordinate.

Keeping with the bright green and turquoise theme for this particular page spread, I am now working on the undersides of the flaps, and the page itself, to produce mats which co-ordinate with the whole. With all this paper lying around, my studio looks as if WWIII has struck it.

I had an offcut of the black card I’d punched with the Multi-Shaper Punch, and I punched it again, into the shape I wanted. I glued this down on the front flap of page 6. I subsequently distressed the edges of the flap, using Black Soot Distress Ink.

Lifting the flap, I added some more of the paper from the paper stack as a mat for the underside of the front flap.

I distressed the edges of this paper with Forest Most Distress Ink.

I was wondering how to create some sort of pocket to hold something, and thought things might fall out with the action of the “up and over” type flap. In the end I created another strap, inserting a little magnet concealed between the layers.

Here it is again, showing the circle punch I used to create the rounded end.

I cut a piece of black card from an offcut, measuring 1 1/2 inches wide, and with some difficulty (it was quite a fiddle!), pushed the end into my 1 1/2 inch circle punch from the bottom until the end was just visible. When I punched it, it came out with a semi-circular end. Unfortunately I don’t have a circular punch of exactly the right measurements to cope with the strap mat, so I drew around a bottle of glue with a circular base which was the right size, and then cut out the semi-circle with scissors. I stuck it down onto the black magnetic strap and folded the top tab over and glued it in place. Turning the flap over, I put the other half of the magnet down and it found its own place, being attracted to the first half. I taped it in place with double-sided tape, and then I attached the mat layer to the strap, using double-sided tape. This strap will be used to hold a small booklet.